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Visually, O’Malley is excellent at hiding his strikes behind feints to create openings, and he is comfortable switching stances, fighting with both southpaw and orthodox looks, which gives him different angles. attack. O’Malley can fight both up front and counter, and his distance management, footwork, and ringcraft are excellent. This was best seen in his title fight victory over Aljamain Sterling, where O’Malley landed a magnificent comeback straight as Sterling pressed in to crush Sterling and get a KO/TKO stoppage.
O’Malley’s striking stats are better than Vera’s, including significant strikes per minute (7 to 4), significant strike accuracy (61% to 50%), strikes absorbed per minute (3.5 at 5) and hitting defense (61% to 51%). Most notably, O’Malley’s strike differential is significantly better, landing more than twice the number of strikes he has absorbed. Meanwhile, Vera absorbed more strikes than he landed, which is a major red flag in his striking metrics.
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Although he absorbed more strikes than he landed, Vera has some upside. Vera is extremely durable and has a great chin, and his durability combined with his pop gives him a chance to win the fight at any time, even if he is behind on the scorecards. Vera’s kicks are dangerous, which was best demonstrated with her brutal knockouts against Frankie Edgar and Dominick Cruz. Vera also appeared to damage O’Malley’s injured leg in their first fight with low kicks, which sped up the stoppage.
Vera never finished his MMA career, with all eight of his career losses coming by decision. O’Malley’s superior striking combined with Vera’s tenacity could create an opportunity for O’Malley to win this fight either by decision (+120) or in the later rounds, and lead to O’Malley winning in more than 2 .5 rounds in a single game. (SGP) is a way to get more favorable odds on O’Malley.
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